Final Saga
by Ctu-Shadow
Summary: A chance encounter brings Shion and the others on-board the vessel, Elsa into working with Cloud and the "terrorist" group Avalanche into saving not just The Planet, but the Universe. Rated "T" but may change as story advances. Updates will be slow.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Final Saga

Chapter One

Prelude to darkness

A/N: This is a AU taking place at the end of Xenosaga Episode 3. There will be a few things to take note of before reading this:

The Dark Professor lives and is part of the Elsa with The Professor

Albedo is still alive (more on what happened between the three URTV's and how Albedo still around will be revealed later).

The Elsa waited for the new network (4 years after the end of the last game… give or take a few months) to be created before they left and also brought MOMO with them (MOMO as well as Jr now appear around the age of 16) It is called the U.N.M II or U.M.N for short

Jin survived and the Elsa found him, chaos, and KOS-MOS after leaving on their journey

The cast now has new A.M.W.S designed after their old E.S's as well as still having the A.G.W.S from Xenosaga episode one.

The Elsa has been upgraded since the end of Episode 3 and now is bigger. It has an extra deck between the two that has always been there. This is where all the cabins and living spaces are located, although the bar is still in the same location. Also were the cabins were

Mary and Shelly Godwin are not aboard the Elsa and are staying behind to look after the Foundation

In the darkened laboratory in the Shinra tower, looming over the dark form of the city, the crown jewel of the empire it has created. There was only one person visible in the room only being lit by only the computer monitor directly in front of him. He was a skinny man with dark oily slick backed hair tied in a ponytail. Upon the slightly dirty, but still nicely pressed lab coat, a nametag/access card shows the man's picture along with the name reading as "Dr. Hojo". Hojo silently looked over the data displayed upon the computer with a small smirk on his face The room was quiet so that a mere pin dropping on the floor would have been enough to break the silence, but a voice coming from a unseen person did that with a single sentence.

Unknown Man: I see you are impressed with the technology I have so kindly given you access to, Doctor.

Hojo: Why of course, with your help in upgrading my lab, I have been able to do so much more then I ever thought. It is so hard to believe how I managed to work with such primitive equipment. In addition, all the research data you brought along was also impressive beyond believe.

Unknown man: *looks at computer screen* Well I am intrigued by this project you are working on. It is very ambitious, so I will be looking forward to seeing if you can pull it off. Just take my advice; that ambition of yours might one day destroy you.

Jr: So after all surviving all those dangers, all the puzzles and time I put into this adventure you just are now telling me that the cake was a lie!

MOMO: *looks over the computer monitor showing the credits screen to the Valve game Portal* Well the game has mentioned several times via writings on the wall the cake was not real. Besides, Portal is not like one of the newer games on the Encephalon, where you could have eaten the cake yourself.

Jr: Yeah, you're right MOMO, although after all that I would really like some chocolate cake right now.

MOMO: That sounds good *Smiles* There should still be some left in the fridge so how about we go and get it.

Junior or as some were to call him Rubedo, turned off the computer monitor and started to walk with MOMO to enjoy the desired snack. Just before they entered the galley, somebody calling their names stopped them. It took only a moment for Jr. to guess the voice belonged to none other then Shion Uzuki, the most attractive red headed woman on the ship. Although she was the only red haired woman among the crew and passengers within the lohingrin class freighter, that fact should be ignored as the truth was even, if that was not the case, she is still a very beautiful woman.

Shion: What good timing, I just started to look for you. The captain wanted everybody to gather at the bridge. Apparently, we may have found a previously undiscovered world

Jr: So what? We have run into a few new worlds on our trip… what makes this one so special?

Shion: Well, there is human life on this world and no record of it anywhere within the UMN or any database. In addition, the technology of the world is rather primitive since we found no communication satellites in orbit or any UMN activity.

MOMO: I hope we can go down there and see what this world is like.

Jr: Well, we can figure that out when we get to the bridge. So let's get to it.

The three of them left for the bridge while the red headed gunslinger made a mental note to return for the moist and delicious cake the first chance he had. After a short walk, which included a short ride in the elevator, which for some reason was playing some very annoying, but softly played music, the small group opened the door to the bridge to see that everybody else was already there

Matthews: It is about time you shown up! *brings up an image of a planet on the main screen* Yo Tony, bring up the data we got from the remote probe we sent down to the world. First we see what we got going on down there, so if you plan on taking your A.M.W.S's for a closer look, we will be better prepared to get you out of whatever trouble you managed to get your self into… Little Master.

Junior crossed his arms and shown a scowl on his face when chaos spoke up, trying to reduce the tension within the room.

Chaos: He was not being mean to you about it Jr. He knows that there is nothing that will stop you and he just wants to be ready to give you whatever backup you might need in case the locals are not friendly.

Jr: You're right as always chaos. So lets get this ball rolling. I've been stuck aboard one ship or another for quite awhile. It will be a nice change of scenery.

The next hour was a basic rundown on all the information the probe collected from the local and low-tech information network along with any images the ships cameras taken from their position in orbit around the world.

After the meeting, it was decided that Allen, Shion, Jr, MOMO, chaos, Jin, and KOS-MOS would go down at the moment wile Ziggy and the rest will remain onboard and give whatever backup they can if it becomes needed. After spending what time they needed to prepare for the excursion, they packed their, A.M.W.S's into their respective storage capsules with Allen taking Shion's old VX 10000 A.G.W.S. After they finished preparing which for Jr. and MOMO also including finished the rest of the cake kept within the fridge they took there leave of the Elsa. Finding a secluded area close by the largest city on the planet, the Elsa drops them off and heads back into space wile the ground crew head towards the city witch the native referred to as Midgar.

The trip was rather long despite being able to land relatively close to the city. Their path lead them into many monsters and, although weak compared to the foes they have gotten used to facing, still proved to be time consuming. While the fights took their time they did prove valuable as most of the bizarre and strange creatures, which fought them to the death left behind not only items, but also coins of various size and material composition. Spherical in shape, they appeared to feature legible numbers upon them to help determine their value. After reaching the gates of Midgar, they had accumulated around ten thousand gil, if they calculated the value of the currency correctly that is. Though the gates of the city appeared impenetrable with an electronic computer controlled locking system, Shion was able to hack into it and open the gate granting them access to the part of the city known as "the slums".

Wile traveling towards the train station that would bring them up above the plate that separates the slums below with the upper part, which holds the city together, they ran into a fight in which six lightly armed men in military uniforms were fighting against one long dark haired woman armed only with a pair of fighting gloves. The group was unsure what the reason on the fight was and if they should interfere, but that was until one of the soldiers open his mouth and said, "Shinra owns this town and so that gives us the right to take whatever we want. If you do not like seeing a few shop keepers get hurt then we can save their beatings for you". Without a moment's hesitation, each member charged towards the brawl and within seconds, and as KOS-MOS would say, "All enemy units have been annihilated." Strangely, it was Shion (who attacked the one who spoke) that was the most violent with her attacks, leaving her male friends glad they were not on the receiving end of her rage (A/N: Would you feel sorry for him? Because I sure don't!!!) Once the coast was clear, the woman introduced herself as Tifa Lockheart. After a few minutes of talking, the group went along with Tifa to her bar where she planned to ask the group to join Avalanche.

(A/N: Not going into details on items, they got right now, but they got mostly healing items. Although for what information they possess about the world it is mostly basic knowledge about cities, governments, material, and mako energy aka the lifestream, or it can also be known as a localized small scale Unus Mundus, which for an unknown reason exists in both the real-number domain and imaginary-number domain. As of now, Avalanche is still a relatively unknown terrorist group. Although… anybody who has played Final Fantasy VII would disagree about who the terrorist really is, but that is beside the point. The last thing that needs to be cleared up (although it will be mentioned soon), this is taking place soon before FFVII starts so it is during the time Cloud and Barret are on the mission to destroy Midgar's Mako reactor number one. Next chapter will be on how Cloud and Barret deal with the attack on the mako reactor and it will be an unpleasant surprise for the two.)

Omake: By AngelofSatire =^_^=

Special Attention From ShinRa News Network (SNN):

Thousands of angry citizens are crowding the doors of "Aperture Science" in an outrage. It seems that the citizens are in fact purchasers of the "new" game, Portal. News reporter, Ran Kudo, has this startling new breakthrough. Mrs. Kudo? *scene switches to Ran, in the middle of an angry mob outside of the company*

Ran: There has been a critical aspect in these civilian's motives. It lies in the messages located within The Aperture Science Research Facility. "The Cake Is A Lie" is what many of these people are shouting.

News Anchor: Is there a cake then?

Ran: Apparently not, although these people didn't seem to get the message. Two workers have already been injured.

News Anchor: Thank you, Mrs. Kudo. We will continue to deliver updates on this developing situation.


	2. Chapter 2: The Biggining of the End

Final Saga

Chapter two

Avalanche First strike

A/N: I am skipping some dialog from the beginning of the game since I am lazy and since I did not believe it to be important enough to waste the space as it only severed to give out a few names and show how much of a jerk Cloud is. I would also like to apologize for the shortness of this and the last chapter. I will try to make them longer in the future, but for now, I believe shorter chapters work better. I am doing this so each chapter can be focused on certain people and not having to jump around too much.

The former Solder Cloud Strife has been in many mako reactors during his time working for Shinra. Although this was not one, he has been in before he did not have any trouble navigating the interior. The only thing different then before was that this time he was hired by a small group known as Avalanche to plant a bomb onto the interior of reactor to destroy it. Cloud, never one to like riding in elevators, hated this trip even more so with Barret lecturing him about the evils of Mako reactors and how it is killing the planet. The blonde-haired person was not really paying attention the man with the gun arm as he was thinking back to something he was told during his time in basic training. "No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy". Although nothing has gone wrong, yet, he knew it was only a matter of time before that changed.

There was not much in the way of guards when they exited the elevator. Although they did encounter some robots, they were no match for Clouds sword or the stream of bullets from Barret's gun arm. After a few battles they went down the ladder to the walkway leading to the reactor, but this was where their luck ran out. This was the spot where they group suffered their first causality…..their plan.

Before they were able to get off the platform and onto the bridge leading to the reactor, both Barret and Cloud had to jump for cover as a hail of bullets flew right where they were standing less then a few seconds prior. Ahead behind a barricade of sandbags were several armed guards with full automatic weapons. Barret thinking quickly grabs a fire extinguisher and throws it at the group. Cloud getting the hint hits it with a bolt spell from his lightning materia as soon as it gets into range blasting fragments on metal into the bodies of their now desist enemies. As they went to grab any items and money the fallen guards may have had, Cloud was the first to notice….each and every enemy looked the same. It was not just because they had the same color style uniforms for such duties. The truth was, each of them were identical right down to hair and eye color and even facial features matched up. Although Cloud was the first to notice, Barret was the first to say anything

Barret: What is up with them? Are they part of some Shinra cloning project?

Cloud: I am not sure. I know they were working on something like this, but they canceled it after of the Genesis incident. Well lost all data along with the death of anybody involved with the project was the true reason.

Barret: We are almost at the reactor… let's move on so we can get out before we find any new surprises Shinra has cooked up.

Cloud: You're right… let's mosey.

Barret: Could you have said that any more whimper!?

Fortunately, there were no more surprises between them and the reactor. Cloud was the one who placed the explosives after a brief argument with Barret. It looked like the hard part was over and all was left was to leave before the explosives took out the reactor and whoever was still in the building, but that was when fate intervened and a alarm sounded. Nether of the two knew the reason, or who was to blame. All they did know was they needed to get out before additional security arrived. A sound echoed throughout the room as if a large heavy robot was walking along the bridge. Cloud believed it was a robot Shinra called a "guard scorpion" He saw how wrong he was as the unknown machine that dropped down from a higher platform that was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was humanoid in appearance and around twice Barret's height. It was mostly black in color with some gray highlights around the joints. The only weapons that can be seen on the Robot are two Uzi's one on each of it's hands. Before Cloud launched an attack, a voice spoke out from a unseen speaker on the Shinra controlled mech.

Mech: I see my toy impresses you. In case you are wondering, ShinRa calls this, the AG-03X. As for me, I am Alexander and I shall be your executioner today.

The battle was a tough one, as no matter how many round Barret used or how many strikes with the over sized sword cloud dished out, the Mech would continue to fight back with ether the guns in its hands or a kick from one of its feet. It was not looking good for the two as their supply of health recovery items were almost depleted. It was at this point shrapnel from the battle damaged a water pipe spraying the mech with water. It was not a big deal or so Alexander thought, since the Mech's circuitry was protected, but it was not properly shielded electrically as the water acted as a conduit for, Clouds bolt spell damaging the Mech forcing Alex to flee the battle. Before he did, he said one thing, which was "You may have gotten the better of me this time, but I will be back and I will be the one to kill you". In his haste to leave the battle, he dropped a newer stronger weapon for Barret although happy for the upgrade in firepower was unable to venture a guess as to why it had such an item in the first place.

It was at this point as Cloud noticed the time bomb planed there before the battle shows they only have thirty minutes before it was to detonate. The trip back through the reactor was more difficult then before since security was on alert and thus they were forced into a lot more battles. Although it was a narrow escape, they managed to make it out of reactor just before it went off in a massive fireball visible to everybody who was living on the upper part or Midgar at that moment in time.

Biggs: That should keep the planet going... at least a little longer.

Wedge: Yeah.

Barret: ………

Jessie: OK! Now everyone get back.

The bomb set by the only female in the group blew up the locked gate allowing them passage out of the tunnel, which they used to protect themselves from the blast. Cloud's group went through.

Barret: All right, now let's get out of here. Rendezvous at Sector 8 Station!

Split up and get on the train!

Cloud: H, hey!

Barret: If it's about your money, save it 'til we're back at the hideout.

Cloud moves on. On his way, he met the flower girl.

Flower Girl: Excuse me. What happened?

Cloud: Nothing… hey, listen... …………Don't see many flowers around here.

Flower Girl: Oh, these? Do you like them? They're only a gil...?

Cloud: *buys one*

Flower Girl: Oh, thank you! (Took out a flower) Here you are!

After that, Cloud moves on. Suddenly, Shinra Soldiers surrounded him. Cloud fought off a few, but was eventually cornered on a bridge above some train tracks. Cloud took the only choice he had at the time, jumping off the bridge and onto the train, which was passing underneath to help him with his escape.

Omake 1:

As guards surrounded Cloud, leaving him backed up against the railings of the bridge, he was unable to hear the train that was supposed to be passing by about now.

Guard 1: Any last words?

Cloud: Could you hold off on trying to kill me…..the train is running late.

Guard 1: Why should we do that when we can kill you now?

Cloud: It's in the script that I jump onto the train and you should know how mad He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can get if we deviate from the script.

Guard 1: You mean Voldemort?

Cloud: No, some one much scarier then he is. *in a hushed tone* The author.

Guard 1: Oh shi-!

Guard 2: We're screwed now!!

The guards grew scared quickly and ran away as fast as their legs could take them

Cloud: Wimps! What could that blowhard author do to us anyways?

Cloud did not have a chance to blink as KOS-MOS, T-elos, and Omega landed in front of him. His only response was to faint

Lesson of the day: NEVER Piss off the Author.


End file.
